Many businesses, universities and other enterprises maintain control over their telephone services through the use of private branch exchanges (PBXs). A PBX typically routes internal enterprise telephone calls to a target phone and external telephone calls to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Using a PBX, the enterprise may assign telephone numbers and facilitate abbreviated dialing to internal and external numbers by dialing extensions. Decision trees within the PBX enable the enterprise to control communications costs in external routing decisions and enable the enterprise to make use of a small fraction of the telephone lines that would be required to provide each internal phone with a dedicated phone circuit.
A PBX does not always meet the communications needs of the enterprise or its customers. In environments that attract a large number of temporary users such as hotels, resorts, theme parks, sporting events and concert facilities, guests often use external communications systems that may be available, such as mobile phones, walkie-talkies, email devices and public pay phones. When external communications system are used, the enterprise has no control over the quality of service or the costs incurred by its guests, and the enterprise loses a potential source of revenue.
On a cruise ship, for example, telephone services are typically offered in each passenger cabin via a wireline phone connected to a PBX. A passenger may call other passenger cabins, ship services or, via a satellite link when at sea, an external phone system such as a PSTN. Satellite calls are expensive, leading many cruise passengers to avoid calling from the cruise ship and, instead, use local payphones when the cruise ship is docked. Payphones are usually less expensive than the ship's satellite calls, but are risky and inconvenient. People who “shoulder surf” or use other fraudulent methods, such as fake telephones, to steal the passenger's card numbers may victimize passengers using credit cards or calling cards. When payphones are used, calls are limited to the times and places that payphones are available, and the cruise ship operators have no control over the quality of service or the costs incurred by its passengers.
Communication between passengers is also limited on a cruise ship. The passenger cabins are typically small, and passengers spend much of their time outside of their cabins visiting destination ports and enjoying the ship's amenities, such as swimming pools, formal dining facilities, movie theaters, health spas and gambling casinos. It is common for cruise passengers to bring walkie-talkies to communicate with other passengers while on the ship or at a destination port. Walkie-talkies work best in large common areas such as the deck of the ship or in a dining room, and do not work well, if at all, between different levels of the ship or different ends of the ship when the radio signals are obstructed. Walkie-talkies have a limited range with a clear line-of-sight, and the range is much shorter when obstructions are in the way. Because of these limitations, walkie-talkies are also not effective at destination ports, such as an island, where passengers disperse while visiting local sites.
Another drawback is that walkie-talkie channels are not private, and conversations may be shared with others who are using the same frequency due to the limited number of frequencies assigned to Family Radio Service (FRS) devices. Cruise ships vary in size with large ships carrying over 3,000 passengers and while at a destination port, the number of tourists, crew members and locals is much larger. In some implementations, a walkie-talkie user has the option to select from multiple channels to increase the chance of finding a clear communications channel. Even then the user must often sort through communications among other passengers using the selected channel to determine whether a communication is directed to the user. Conversations are often strained with cross talk, interference from other passengers and poor reception.
Many passengers carry their own mobile phones, which may provide phone access when the cruise ship travels within range of a compatible wireless communications network. Wireless service availability is often intermittent, unreliable, incompatible and potentially very expensive in foreign ports. Because the user is roaming away from its home network, roaming rates for using an available wireless service may be predatory for both the calling and called parties, often resulting in charges for two international calls when calling locally. Further, a caller can only call another passenger who also has a phone that is compatible with an available wireless network.
In view of the above, there is a need in the art for a wireless communications system that is adaptable to meet the temporary communications needs of an enterprise and its guests. There is a further need for a communications system that provides a private enterprise with control over the costs and quality of service of the wireless communications services used by its guests.